


More Time

by westandvigilant



Series: Astronomy in Reverse [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-09
Updated: 2016-08-09
Packaged: 2018-08-07 17:46:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7723894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westandvigilant/pseuds/westandvigilant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on this post by otpdisaster on Tumblr.</p><p>Person A, the more stoic/serious of the two, treating a severe injury that Person B sustained. Person B notices A’s hands shaking and tries to crack a joke, which only serves to send Person A bursting into tears over nearly losing B.</p><p>Another, even shorter, drabble.</p>
            </blockquote>





	More Time

Everything is dark and fuzzy. The escape pod is tiny, far too cramped for both Allura and Shiro to sit in it comfortably. Even if she weren’t bleeding out all around them.

He’s silent as he tears through the pod, leaving her lying on the floor while he upends anything he can get his hands on. He’s got to find the first aid kit that “just has to be in here somewhere.” Finally, he finds his prize and turns to her with a pitiful amount of gauze and bandages.

There is nothing enticing about the way he pulls her into his lap and removes her armor. He is purely antiseptic in the way he strips her down to the waist and reveals the horrific gash under her left ribs. Her skin pulls and peels with the under armor and, try as she does, she can’t stop a cry from ripping painfully through her lips.

Shiro also tries, with all his might, to pretend like it doesn’t rattle him. Like it doesn’t kill him to see her like this, dying in his lap. He wants desperately to block it out, like any good soldier could, and focus on saving her life.

But when he presses the bandage to her skin and she screams under _his_ hands, he can’t help but hesitate. 

“I-I’m sorry, I’m try- I want...” he stammers. “I’ll try to be gentle, but this is going to hurt.”

“Don’t be gentle,” she whispers. “Be quick.”

His fingers begin to flutter and shake as the edges of her vision bleed and blur. The blurry Shiro takes a deep breath, clearly trying to steel himself, and pinches the wound together. Allura barely has time to cry out again before he has smoothed on the bandage and it’s all over.

Shiro props her up further in his lap, resting her head on his chest so her can wrap the gauze around her torso. His motions are once again as unflinching as the Shiro she knows so well.

“You’re lucky,” Shiro swallows, “one more inch to the right and that blade would have caught your stomach.”

And Allura just laughs. “Ah, but an Altean’s stomach rests completely on the left side.”

She thinks it is a joke - a funny joke, in fact - but Shiro stops. His motions halt and his hands still. Even his breath freezes dead in his chest.

“Shiro, I’m joking. It was a joke.”

But Shiro does not laugh. He does not continue wrapping her wound. He does not breathe. The only thing he does is drop the gauze, bury his face in his hand, and weep.

His sobs are soft, only barely audible above the quiet whir of the escape pod. The tears spring up immediately, taking even himself by surprise. He was so focused on treating Allura that hadn’t even realized he was on the verge of tears. 

Apologies spill from the Princess. She apologizes for insisting on joining the mission and she apologizes for upsetting him and she apologizes for her own tears. She apologizes for everything.

Allura inches her fingers up to his wrist and pulls it down. Its warm and callused and it tastes like his tears when she kisses the heel of his palm. He hiccups as she wraps his arm around her.

They are so drained, so bone tired, that they stay like that, laying on the floor exhausted while they jettison through the universe.


End file.
